This recipe is all my sister’s fault. She’s the one who told me that the barbacoa was the best meat at Chipotle. And, it was awesome (if a bit spicy). But now I’m bound and determined to find a slow cooker version of the carnitas. And cheap pork butts. 🙂

I actually have never cooked with chipotles in adobo sauce. To say I faced the ingredient with mild trepidation the likes of making pate choux is not even close to an exaggeration. Josh is a recovering spice-phobic. He is gradually developing an ambivalence about spicier food. But chipotles in adobo are notoriously spicy.

But a recipe from The Slow Roasted Italian has never steered me wrong. I did make a few alterations (in all cases except the chipotles the alterations involved misreading the recipe), but the results were fab-oooooo!

2 teaspoons adobo sauce (from the chipotle pepper can) (next time I will use 1 teaspoon)

1 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

Cut roast into fist-size chunks. Sprinkle all sides of beef with salt.

In a blender (I used my Ninja), combine the sauce ingredients. Blend until smooth (or beyond, if you are having Muffin help you). Set aside.

Warm a not non-stick pan over medium-high heat until (as Alton Brown says) it’s “rocket hot.” Or as The Slow Roasted Italian notes, “until water dripped over the top sizzles.” Add oil. In two batches, sear all sides of the cut beef, evacuating the beef to the slow cooker after it is fully seared. Set slow cooker to low. Pour sauce over top. Cook on low for 6.5 hours.

After 6.5 hours, shred the beef. I’ve never had much luck with the two forks method because I tend to make the two forks screech together a la nails on a chalkboard. The meat pretty much falls apart as you try to remove it from the slow cooker to shred it. I used one fork to kind of smoosh and separate the tender yummy chunks of meat. Place shredded beef back in the slow cooker and stir to completely coat the meat in the yummy sauce. Cover and cook another half hour.